What will Washington do about Fernando Lugo's ouster in Paraguay?

[Judi Lynn]

What will Washington do about Fernando Lugo's ouster in Paraguay?
This hasty, trumped-up impeachment of President Lugo amounts to a coup d'etat. The US must back democratic process
Mark Weisbrot
guardian.co.uk, Friday 22 June 2012 16.17 EDT

A coup d'etat is taking place right now, Friday afternoon, in Paraguay.
That is how it has been described by a number of neighboring governments. And the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) is treating it as such, taking it very seriously. All 12 foreign ministers (including those of Brazil and Argentina, who are deeply concerned) flew to Asunción Thursday night to meet with the government, as well as the opposition in Paraguay's Congress.

The Congress of Paraguay is trying to oust the president, Fernando Lugo, by means of an impeachment proceeding for which he was given less than 24 hours to prepare and only two hours to present a defense. It appears that a decision to convict him has already been written, and will be presented Friday evening (at 20.30 GMT). It would be impossible to call this due process under any circumstances, but it is also a clear violation of Article 17 of Paraguay's constitution, which provides for the right to an adequate defense.

The politics of the situation are clear enough. Paraguay was controlled for 61 years by the rightwing Colorado party. For most of this time (1947-1989), the country was ruled by dictatorship. President Lugo, a former Catholic bishop from the tradition of liberation theology who had fought for the rights of the poor, was elected in 2008, but did not win majority backing in the Congress. He put together a coalition government, but the right – including the media – has never really accepted his presidency.

I met Fernando Lugo in early 2009, and I was impressed with his patience and long-term strategy. He said that given the strength of the institutions aligned against him, he did not expect to gain all that much in the present; he was fighting so that the next generation could have a better life. But the opposition to him was ruthless. In November of 2009, he had to fire his top military officers because of credible reports that they were conspiring with the political opposition.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/22/washington-fernando-lugo-ouster-paraguay

[Judi Lynn]

1. Remember it was 3 yrs ago, June 26, when the right-wing staged its military coup in Honduras. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. (A squint back to the last Lat.Am.coup)The Honduras coup is a sign: the radical tide can be turned

The Honduras coup is a sign: the radical tide can be turned
If this were Burma or Iran the assault on democracy would be a global cause celebre. Instead, Obama is sitting on his hands
Seumas Milne
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 August 2009 16.00 EDT

If Honduras were in another part of the world – or if it were, say, Iran or Burma – the global reaction to its current plight would be very different. Right now, in the heart of what the United States traditionally regarded as its backyard, thousands of pro-democracy activists are risking their lives to reverse the coup that ousted the country's elected president. Six weeks after the left-leaning Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped at dawn from the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa and expelled over the border, strikes are closing schools and grounding flights as farmers and trade unionists march in defiance of masked soldiers and military roadblocks.

The coup-makers have reached for the classic South American takeover textbook. Demonstrators have been shot, more than a thousand people are reported arrested, television and radio stations have been closed down and trade unionists and political activists murdered. But although official international condemnation has been almost universal, including by the US government, barely a finger has been lifted outside Latin America to restore the elected Honduran leadership.

Of course, Latin America has long been plagued by military coups – routinely backed by the US – against elected governments. And Honduras, the original banana republic, has been afflicted more than most. But all that was supposed to have changed after the end of the cold war: henceforth, democracy would reign. And as Barack Obama declared, there was to be a "new chapter" for the Americas of "equal partnership", with no return to the "dark past".

But as the coup regime of Roberto Micheletti digs in without a hint of serious sanction from the country's powerful northern sponsor, there is every sign of a historical replay. In a grotesquely unequal country of seven million people, famously owned and controlled by 15 families, in which more than two-thirds live below the poverty line, the oligarch rancher Zelaya was an unlikely champion of social advance.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/12/honduras-coup-democracy-barack-obama

[bongbong]

3. From the article

> He put together a coalition government, but the right – including the media – has never really accepted his presidency.

Sounds a lot like Obama.